Fox News faces wrath from right and left over debate footage stance

In what must surely be a sign of the apocalypse, right-wing weblog Redstate.com has joined forces with Moveon.org to demand that Fox News cease and desist from sending cease-and-desist letters to presidential candidates who use the network's debate footage in their ads and on their web sites. Both groups sent out a joint press release today, containing statements from each of their representatives, along with quotes from the usual suspects like Lawrence Lessig and activist journalist Jeff Jarvis.

After noting that the Dems have already decided to boycott Fox News on partisan grounds, RedState's Erick Erickson added: "It would be a shame if the Republicans now shut out FOX altogether from the debate process. Every other news organization has liberated their debate footage, and FOX should either be no different or no longer have the privilege of airing debates."

NBC, ABC, and CNN have all agreed to open up their debate footage for use and abuse by bloggers and YouTube posters, but Fox News has held fast. The network first sent cease-and-desist letters to John McCain's campaign, demanding that it stop airing a campaign ad that featured a few seconds of footage from a Fox debate. There was some initial speculation at lefty blog TalkingPointsMemo.com that Rudy hadn't gotten a takedown notice because of his friendship with Fox News president and former Nixon media strategist Roger Ailes, but this later tapered off as reports came in that the letters had also been sent to the rest of the offending candidates.

McCain has so far refused to comply with the takedown, and defiantly airs the commercial, claiming fair use as a defense. Moveon.org praised McCain for his stand on this issue.

So for those keeping score at home, here's what the past two weeks have brought: Redstate.com attacks Fox News, Moveon.org praises John McCain, and fundamentalist Christian Bob Jones III (who believes Mormonism is a cult) endorses Mitt Romney. Truly, politics does indeed make for strange bedfellows.